Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Another KAL

I tell you, I am SUCH a joiner these days!! First the Dish Rag Tag. It begins in August and our team will compete against other teams in the country, one in Australia and at least one in Canada! It's basically a relay race. The organizer (Emily of Yarn Miracle) will mail out a box to each team captain. From there the captain will take the enclosed dishrag and knit a new one from the enclosed ball of cotton. She will put her dishcloth, two balls of cotton (one for the next person to keep and one for them to knit with) and some small goodies into the box and mail it to the next person on the list. And so it goes. The first team to get it back to the start, wins! I may not be the fastest knitter, but boy can I whip out a dishrag!

The second thing I joined (just today!), is the Tour de France KAL! I'm competing under the polka dot jersey for "mountain climbers". I will be knitting on my first sweater! I'm most excited about this and looking forward to finishing my sweater! As a good friend pointed out "It will be cool before you know it". Hard to believe in this 90+ degree heat but she's right.

The links for both of these are in my sidebar, click on the appropriate button.

I also bring you:



Brother. (with a Bartholamew backdrop). Brother is the first fleece Catie bought and processed herself. When she sold me my wheel, she gave me what was left of Brother. After a discussion with my Dad on various subjects, he told me about a double knit Aran sweater my Mom had made him A Long Time Ago. It was still very lanolin rich and he really liked that sweater. Well, I told him that even though I love him dearly, I'm not knitting him a sweater (I haven't even knit me a whole sweater yet ya know?) I did have a still greasy fleece and would be happy to make him another hat? The man lives in the desert. I know it gets cold in the desert in the winter and they even got more snow than I did this past winter but I'm making the man another hat. Being a good dad (and a bit of a hat collector) he said that would be nice. :) So I spun up what is nearing the bottom of the bag of Brother. Catie was amazed that I've kept Brother! I think he's a very pretty gray. The picture really doesn't show the nice gray-ness of it. I know that sounds silly but it's true.

So, I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should rename Brother now that he's all spun up. (Be forewarned: there is MORE silliness ahead!) I thought well, I spun Brother for my Father. Maybe I should rename the yarn "Uncle" (see? Bad silliness at that...) I still haven't decided but am looking forward to knitting my first item with my handspun!

8 comments:

Robin said...

Yeah...I'm a joiner these days too!
Your spinning looks wonderful! Keep up the GREAT work!

Anonymous said...

You are right -- your kitty looks just like my Tim!! So glad to find your blog and I'm looking forward to getting to know you. :) Good luck with your fleece.

Marianne said...

I think you did a great job of spinning Brother! Looking forward to the hat for your Dad...I like the colour of Brother!

Mary said...

Oh, brother! ;-) I'm not much of a joiner because I don't need another knitting deadline, but I love the idea of that dish rag tag. Looking forward to your posting more about it! :-)

Have fun knitting up your latest handspun! And what better project than a hat! (says the queen of hat knitting!) :-)

Dana said...

The KALs' you've joined sound wonderful and fun. Like you, I've never done a sweater before, but Dianne's "neck down" was very intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing your handspun knit up - -please do post a photo or two! :)

Diana said...

Wow, already spun enough to knit up a hat!! I'm impressed and challenged to get busy! I'm spinning some rust colored roving that came with a drop spindle I bought about a year ago. I want to ply it with some cream colored wool. Still it will be while.

Dianne said...

You're quite the 'kal butterfly'..I love the sound of the dishrag swap..but too late to join..will keep a watchful eye for 2008...and your 'homespun' is loverly..a hat will be perfect!@@
Hugs

cate said...

Way to go!! Please, rename Brother. He needs a lot of help and a new alter ego might just do the trick!